remoteStorage

Nowadays everyone has hundreds of accounts all over the internet and are forced to trust companies with their personal data. Which the companies can then use pretty much however they please.

There is a group of developers working on a product with the possibility to change that, by enabling people to store their app data in a place of their own choosing.

RemoteStorage is the name of that product and it gives you the freedom to save data from apps in a private place. Nothing gets stored by the app provider.

I was approached by Sebastian from 5apps to redesign a widget for RemoteStorage that was in need of an overhaul.

The widget can be added to apps that want to give users the ability to connect to their own RemoteStorage. The user simply enters their special RemoteStorage address which looks like an e-mail address and syncs up.

They were in the process of enabling Dropbox and Google Drive integration so users didn't necessarily have to connect to a RemoteStorage backend. Thus making it more easily usable to those who already have Dropbox and Google Drive.

But the old design of the widget couldn't easily accommodate these changes so 5apps decided to sponsor an redesign and improve the UX.

Results

This project was smaller and more specific than my usual projects. But fun and demanding nonetheless.

I went through a lot of sketches and iterations through the process trying to make it as smooth and frictionless as possible. I'm happy with the results and, better yet, the client was very happy with it as well.

At first the widget looks like this. Simple call to action in one of the corners.

Click on it and you are greeted with a short introduction and a link to read more. Below that are your storage options, RemoteStorage, Dropbox and Google Drive.

If you click on the RemoteStorage option you are given a login screen where you enter your storage address. The other options require you to authenticate through those providers.

After connecting to your remote storage, you have your address displayed along with a timestamp from the last time your data was synced. And then two buttons, one to sync and one to logout. (I later changed that logout button to a power button)

Once you get back to working on your app the bubble disappears and only a little RemoteStorage icon sits behind. Sidenote: that logo has been redesigned as well.

Finally here is a little gif to showcase the interaction with the app.

It was a pleasure working on another open source project. Overall I think we are seeing an increasing demand for design in open source projects. Project owners are waking up and designers are forming groups.

Open Source Design is one of those groups who I am a proud member of. I met Sebastian there and got the lead for this project. I encourage any designers interested in open source to join us and help contribute to a more open world.